Chichi Cupcakery: Happy 11-Month Birthday Nicholas!

Dear Nicholas,

It is hard to believe that you’re almost a year old…less than one month away as I write this letter. This month you proved what a little boy you have become. You are mimicking, learning, talking, and moving around just like a little boy!

Your first big accomplishment this month was pulling up all by yourself. You were a little hesitant and unstable at first, but now you pull up on just about everything and can even walk along objects after you have pulled up. Then you combined this skill with crawling, and can now successfully make your way all the way upstairs by yourself (with one of us immediately behind you just in case, of course)!

Here you are the very first time you pulled up by yourself

Your second big accomplishment this month, which has completely changed the way you communicate with us, was learning to point at things. It is so much fun seeing you point to things you want, point to things you’re interested in, and point to things and identify them verbally at the same time. Yes, you’re talking more and more this month too, but more on that later. Earlier this month, I asked you to point to the monkey on your wall in your room…and you did!

When you want us to pick you up, you now crawl over to us, sit at our feet, and point up to us. When you see the dog, you point to him and say “dog.” It is so much fun being able to communicate with you on this basic, but oh-so-important level.

You’re also talking so much this month. You now have a repertoire of about 10 words: dada, mama, hi, buh-bye, baba (for bottle), dog, ball, uh oh, go and agua (water in Spanish). You’re also big on the exclamations, like: whoa, wow (and often a combination of the two – wow-whoa), hey, heya, and hiya (like the karate-chop sound). On top of these words, you babble constantly and it’s so much fun to listen to.

Your favorite ‘toys’ are books, and the best part is, you seem to know that they are filled with words. While sometimes you just like to sit and flip the pages, a lot of times you sit down and babble to yourself, as though you’re actually reading.

You also love the dog’s toys, and seem to find them much more interesting than your own. We’ve learned with you that the best toys are the books, dog’s toys, shoe boxes, laundry baskets, empty water bottles, and so on – nothing that you’d find at Toys ‘R Us.

You mimic everything now, and it’s so cute. You copy us when we talk and often try to repeat the words that we’re saying. You especially like to mimic us when we’re singing, and love to dance and sing along with us. At Music Class, the teacher even noticed that you were mouthing “la la la” along with one of the songs that we sing. But the cutest thing you do is mimic us when we laugh. Your laughter is the sweetest sound in the world, and I wish I could hear it all the time. The funniest part about it is that you snort when you’re laughing really hard…one of the few things that you get from me.

We’re also making slow, but steady strides to eating like a big boy. You started eating veggie puffs this month and you love them. You want to eat them more than anything now (which makes getting more nutritious food into you a bit of a challenge, but at this point, we’ll take anything we can get). You also mastered the sippy cup this month (the kind with the straw, and without). Although you often just suck the water out of the cup and then like to spit it out all over you. You’re still not big on eating many other solid foods, so we’ll be going to food therapy this month to see if we can help you with that, but we are so proud of the accomplishments that you’ve already made. Here’s a funny picture of you making a sour face while eating your apricots.

Some of your other big moments this month included getting your THIRD haircut! I think your grandfathers are a little jealous of all the hair you have. You also learned how to blow bubbles in the pool, which shocked me because I didn’t know babies your age could do that. We taught you at swim lessons and then one day at our neighborhood pool, you stuck your face in and out came a bunch of bubbles. You practice in the bathtub at night too and love it. We introduced you to the baby pool this month and you love it as much as the big pool. You have so much fun splashing and crawling around, that even Wingnut joins you on occasion.

We ended the month on a sad note, though, with the passing of your great grandmother, Mamaw. But we’re so thankful that you got to meet her a few times, and she always remembered you as St. Nick. Here is a picture of you two together when you first met.